Macedonian rebels under pressure

SKOPJE, Macedonia -- Efforts are being made in Macedonia during a brief lull in fighting to exert diplomatic pressure on ethnic Albanians rebels.

With no reports of major clashes on Wednesday after 48-hours of some of the most intensive fighting since the conflict between the parties began in February, diplomats were telling the rebels that they are isolated and have no political role to play.

"They are under very heavy pressure. They are being told: 'you have no friends,'" a diplomat in Skopje told Reuters.

"There is intensive diplomatic activity. We are sure the message is reaching them, and the message is: 'You have no political role,' so go," he said.

Diplomatic sources said contact had been made with the rebel National Liberation Army (UCK) but declined to give details of the nature of the contacts, their level or locations.

The behind-the-scenes diplomatic efforts came 10 days after the formation of a government of national unity was set up in a bid to douse the ethnic Albanian insurgency.

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But so far the government has made little headway and finds itself facing continued military clashes and political stalemate.

Macedonia has repeatedly said it will not give in to rebel demands for a political role in talks on improving the rights of the republic's one-third Albanian minority, because legitimate Albanian parties are already in government.

Sources told Reuters that a seat at the negotiating table -- which the UCK says is its bottom line -- is not on offer in the contacts now under way.

A spokesman for Balkans envoy Robert Frowick, of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, said negotiations were at a delicate point and "we are very close to peace."

The Macedonian state news agency reported that Macedonia's two main ethnic Albanian party leaders held secret talks in the Kosovo capital, Pristina, on Wednesday with UCK political leader Ali Ahmeti.

It said they "signed a document committing themselves to cooperation and joint action." But Macedonia's Slav president and prime minister had not been informed of these contacts, the report added.

Frowick firmly denied a Kosovo newspaper report that he had also met Ahmeti, along with the two Macedonian Albanian party leaders.

His spokesman said he would never meet Ahmeti so long as armed guerrillas were occupying Macedonian villages.

A spokesman for the UCK's Ahmeti told Reuters on Wednesday that the guerrillas were still insisting on "a true dialogue with international mediation in order to end the fighting through political means."

The latest upsurge in clashes, in a cluster of villages in northeastern Macedonia, was triggered by the killing of 10 policemen and soldiers in two attacks four weeks ago.

On Wednesday, six of eight policemen wounded near the village of Lisec -- on the Tetovo-Popova Sapka road -- when their cars were hit by mortar fire, remained in hospital.

Later in the evening rebels and government troops exchanged fire for some 30 minutes north of Tetovo, using mortars and artillery respectively, the government said.